Artificial Skin in Robotics

Artificial Skin - A comprehensive interface for system-environment interaction - This thesis investigates a multifunctional artificial skin as touch sensitive whole-body cover for robotic systems. To further the evolution from tactile sensors to an implementable artificial skin a general concept for the design process is derived. A standard test procedure is proposed to evaluate the performance. The artificial skin contributes to a safe and intuitive physical human robot interaction

Robotics of human movements

The construction of robotic systems that can move the way humans do, with respect to agility, stability and precision, is a necessary prerequisite for the successful integration of robotic systems in human environments. We explain human-centered views on robotics, based on the three basic ingredients (1) actuation; (2) sensing; and (3) control, and formulate detailed examples thereof

Inventories in the Open Economy Macro Model

Currently, large efforts are unertaken to bring robotic applications to domestic environments. Especially physical human-robot cooperation is a major concern and various design and control methodologies were developed on the way to achieve this task. In particular, this necessitates the evaluation of injury risks a human is exposed to in case he is hit by a robot. In this video several blunt impact tests are shown, leading to an assessment of which factors dominate injury severity. We will illustrate the effect robot speed, robot mass, and constraints in the environment have on safety in humanrobot impacts. It will be shown that the intuition of high impact loads being transmitted by heavy robots is wrong. Furthermore, the conclusion is induced that free impacts are by far less dangerous than being crushed